The Mauraders' Generation

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 123804


Tonks wrote:
> I have suggested this in the past. LV is the last of the Slytherin 
line. But there could be another line in the family. There has got to
be a reason he went there to kill James and Harry and not Lily. I 
know, I know the prophesy, but how else do we explain that Lily didn't
have to die. LV isn't that nice of a guy.


Carol responds:
Absolutely, he's not that nice a guy, but I don't think we need to
postulate that LV was in any way reluctant to kill Lily, for pity or
any other uncharacteristic reason. IMO, she "didn't have to die" (in
LV's view) because, unlike James, she wasn't resisting LV. James, in
contrast, fought bravely and could only be gotten rid of (permanently)
with an AK. In Lily's own view, she *did* have to die, but through
self-sacrifice, not by fighting. She was in LV's way, preventing him
from doing what he wanted to do (kill Harry), but if she had only
placed her life above Harry's and stepped aside, she would not, in
LV's view, have had to die. (Not understanding a mother's love for her
child and not aware of the "ancient magic" Lily had in mind, LV seems
to have believed that she had a choice in the matter.)

Also, I don't think that LV went to GH to kill *James* and Harry. He
only went there to kill Harry. He could have stupefied James, but why
take the chance that he'd wake up and fight again? James was a hated
enemy offering a fight and Voldemort gave it to him. But unlike James,
who was only trying to give Lily a chance to run away with Harry (I
don't think he knew about her contingency plan involving "ancient
magic"), Voldemort, in a hurry to destroy the one who would some day
have the power to kill him, had no scruples about using an AK. He
fought and killed James but saw no need to kill Lily until he realized
that there was no other way to get her to stop blocking his path.

Carol, who sees no need for any further explanation though she could,
of course, be wrong